A variety of telecommunication services, such as telephone service and cable television service, have become virtually ubiquitous, particularly in developed countries such as the United States. A number of economic and technical factors have increased the availability of such services, and in at least some instances, have decreased the cost. As consumers become familiar with these services, the demand for new and enhanced services has increased in an almost exponential manner.
Many common telecommunication services rely on some form of wiring, such as optical fibers, coaxial cables or copper twisted wire pairs to provide the communications to actual customer premises. Installation and maintenance of such wiring presents a variety of problems. Of particular note for purposes of this invention, servicing a request for certain types of service upgrades requires installation of new wiring from network equipment to customer premises equipment. Similarly, repair or replacement of damaged wiring from the network equipment to the customer premises equipment often requires removal of the damaged wiring and installation of new wiring. Any such installation is labor intensive and time consuming making it difficult to quickly provision new services or to restore interrupted services. Although these problems apply to other types of networks, it may be helpful to better illustrate the problems by considering a telephone network in somewhat more detail.
In a typical telephone system, customer premises wiring connects telephone station equipment to a central office switching system via a hardwired line. The line to the customer premises may take many different forms in the field, but most telephone circuit installations still utilize a twisted wire pair type loop or drop for at least the last 500 feet from some form of telephone line terminal into the customer premises. Typically the drop cable from the telephone line terminal comprises an active twisted wire pair carrying a subscriber's telephone service signals and at least one spare pair. The drop cable may run along telephone poles and from an aerial terminal to a network interface device on the customer premises. Alternatively, the drop cable may run underground from a pedestal type terminal to the network interface device. The network interface device in turn connects the drop cable to the customer premises wiring. The customer premises equipment (CPE), e.g. telephone stations and the like, connects to the customer premises wiring.
The NID serves as the point of demarcation between the telephone company wiring and the customer premises wiring. The customer is responsible for maintaining and repairing the customer premises wiring, although some customers contract with the telephone company to service the customer premises wiring. The local telephone company is responsible for maintaining and repairing the telephone line from the central office as far as the NID on the customer premises.
When a subscriber served through the above described telephone line installation requests an upgrade in service by the addition of a second line, the telephone company must execute a complex procedure to physically install and/or connect a new line paralleling the first line. A simplified discussion of the process follows.
FIG. 6 shows the timeline for the process of provisioning and installation for a new service, such as the above described second telephone line. Time values shown in FIG. 6 are exemplary average values, and actual service order processing by a telephone company may take longer times, particularly during periods of increased demand for new services or repairs.
The process begins when a subscriber calls in to the business office of the telephone operating company. The subscriber provides relevant personal information to a service representative, and the subscriber and the service representative negotiate the details of the desired new service. In the present example, the service representative takes the order for the additional telephone line.
When the interaction with the customer is complete, the service representative issues an order for the desired service (new line) and obtains a due date for expected completion of the required provisioning and installation work. On average, the interaction between the subscriber and the representative and the issuance of the service order take 0.7 hours. During the next period, typically averaging about 72 hours, various service personnel provision the new service. For example, these personnel identify switching office resources for allocation to the new service (new line) and program the switching office to allocate those resources to this subscriber.
During the period following issuance of the service order, that order remains pending. This period ends when a technician becomes available and is dispatched to service this customer's order. On the average, approximately 72 hours after issuance of the service order, the telephone operating company dispatches one or more technicians to make connections and install equipment as needed to implement the newly ordered service. In the second telephone line example, this entails connecting up the new line. If the drop cable to the subscriber's premises includes a spare pair, that pair can serve as the new line. In this case, the technician connects the spare pair to appropriate connectors in the network terminal and connects the spare pair to customer premises wiring through the NID. If the drop cable to the subscriber's premises does not include a spare pair, then the technician(s) must actually run a new cable and connect a twisted wire pair from that cable as the new line.
At this point, the technician may run standard tests to determine if the newly installed service is operative, and then the technician closes out the service order. Typically, the installation process requires an average of 2.8 hours. After the installation, the business office contacts the customer as a follow-up, e.g. to determine if the service was installed to the customer's satisfaction. The follow-up may take an additional half hour.
As shown by FIG. 6 and the above discussion, an average installation and associated provisioning for an additional line takes a total of 76 hours from the time that the subscriber first calls in to order the new line. As noted above, this time often increases if technicians are unavailable, e.g. during times for a high demand for repair work. During this time, the subscriber is waiting impatiently for the new service. Also, during this time, the telephone operating company is not receiving any revenue that would otherwise accrue from the subscriber's use of the new service. The relatively long installation time therefore results in customer dissatisfaction and loss of income to the telephone operating company. Similar delays are incurred during installation of network equipment and/or customer premises interfaces during upgrades of services provided via existing wiring, e.g. from analog to digital service.
Similar time delays arise in restoring service through inoperative telephone line installations. FIG. 7 shows the timeline for service restoration. Again, time values shown in the drawing are exemplary average values, and actual service order processing by a telephone company may take longer times, particularly during periods of increased demand for service repairs.
The process begins when a subscriber calls in to the business office of the telephone operating company to request repair for an out of service telephone line. The subscriber provides relevant personal information to a service representative to identify the subscriber and the out of service line. A test center, such as a remote maintenance center (RMC) conducts automated tests on the facilities allocated to the subscriber. From these tests, it can be determined whether the fault is in the network or is somewhere in the outside plant, between the serving central office and the subscriber's telephone station equipment. Often, for outside plant faults, these tests can also provide an approximate location of the fault. The operator at the telephone company office then determines the approximate time to complete the repair and gives the subscriber that time as a `commitment`.
When the interaction with the customer is complete, the service representative issues a trouble report, and that trouble report remains pending until dispatch of a repair technician. On average, the interaction between the subscriber and the representative and the issuance of the trouble report take 0.2 hours, and the report remains pending for 12.9 hours until the technician receives the restoration dispatch order through the appropriate work force administration (WFA) system.
Once dispatched, it requires an average of 4.4. hours to restore the circuit and report the repair back to the WFA system. For a line repair, the restoration work may be similar to the installation of a new second telephone line as discussed above. Assuming the problem is a fault in the active pair in the subscriber's drop cable, the technician may disconnect that pair and connect in the spare pair in place of the inoperative pair. Alternatively, the technician may need to install a new cable. After restoration, the technician may run standard tests to determine if the newly installed service is operative and then the technician closes out the service order.
After the restoration, the business office contacts the customer as a follow-up, e.g. to determine if the service was repaired to the customer's satisfaction. The follow-up may take an additional half hour.
As shown by FIG. 7 and the above discussion, an average restoration of an interrupted telephone line circuit takes a total of 18 hours from the time that the subscriber first calls in to report the service interruption. This time is an average only, and many customers experience longer actual times, e.g. during times when there is a high demand for repair work. As in the new service installation example, this time often increases if technicians are unavailable, and the subscriber is waiting impatiently. The relatively long restoration time results in customer dissatisfaction and loss of income to the telephone operating company.
A number of systems recently have been proposed for providing digitally multiplexed communications via fiber optic cables in telephone loop plant, between the central office and the customer premises equipment. Several such proposals generally address testing and maintenance issues, as shown by the examples discussed below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,050 to Czerwiec et al. discloses a fiber-to-the-curb telecommunications network providing broadband and narrowband (telephone) services. A central office connects to a number of remote terminals via optical feeders. Separate FM super trunks carry frequency multiplexed video programming channels from the central office to the remote terminals. Optical links in turn connect the remote terminals to optical network units (ONU) in the subscribers' neighborhood (e.g. at the curb). Each subscriber's home connects to one of the ONU's via a twisted wire pair for voice and a coaxial cable for video. The optical network unit includes a test unit responsive to commands from a controller in the network unit to perform metallic line tests on lines extending to the subscriber premises. Test results are stored in a memory associated with the controller in the optical network unit. Upon receipt of a test request from a central test controller, the controller in the optical network unit either initiates a new test or sends data from the previous test to the central controller.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,050 to Burke et al. teaches testing of drop wires in a digital loop system that has optical fiber up to a distant terminal near the subscriber's premises. Beyond the terminal, wire pairs extend to the customer. A test module at the distant terminal determines the presence or absence of faults on the wires to the customer premises. The results of the test are transmitted via an optical data link to the remote terminal where the results can be accessed by a loop tester at the central office.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,184 to Abrams et al. a digital loop transmission system including a remote terminal having a plurality of channel units. The remote terminal includes a test unit with means for applying to the channel units appropriate terminations and detectors for the testing of the units.
FIG. 8 provides a simplified illustration of the unit providing the interface between the optical links and the electrical drop cable links, here referred to as an optical network unit (ONU), of the general type used in the above discussed fiber-to-the-curb networks. As illustrated, the ONU 801 connects to one or more fibers 811. The ONU 811 includes a number of line cards 803 providing the physical connection and electrical interface to various drop cable circuits 819. Although not separately shown, the ONU 811 includes some form of time division multiplexing/demultiplexing circuitry to provide two-way digital routing between time slots or channels on the high speed fiber link 811 and the line cards 801. The line cards and the time division multiplexing/demultiplexing circuitry are controlled by a controller 805.
In the upstream direction, the ONU 801 aggregates the digital signals from the line cards 803, converts the aggregate digital stream to optical form and transmits the optical signal over the fiber link 815. In the downstream direction, the ONU 801 converts a received optical signal from link 815 to electrical form, separates out digital signals for each service and applies those signals to the appropriate line cards 803.
The fiber in the loop systems have not specifically addressed the above noted problems related to provisioning and installation for service upgrades and/or restoration of interrupted circuits.
In an ONU of the type shown in FIG. 8, it is possible to remotely activate certain service functionalities, but this remote activation capability is very limited. To activate a new feature or service, the ONU controller 805 is programmed or provisioned to activate the relevant line card and to control the time division multiplexing/demultiplexing circuitry to provide routing to and from the line card. To activate a service in this manner, the line card must be in place in the ONU and available (not already in use). Also, the line card must provide the requested service. For example, if a customer requests a new telephone line, a telephone line card must be available in the ONU 801 serving that customer, otherwise the operating company must dispatch a technician to install the line card for the requested service. Also, the correct type of drop cable must be in place, otherwise a technician must be dispatched to install the requisite cable. For example, if a new purchaser of a home has telephone service and elects to now subscribe to video service, a video grade drop cable is required. This cable may be in place, e.g. if a previous owner subscribed to video services, but in many cases the operating company must dispatch technician(s) to install the cable from the ONU to the customer premise. No provision has been made to use any form of remote activation to restore interrupted service.
As shown by the above examples, many situations arise, even in the fiber-to-the-curb type systems having limited remote activation capability, wherein the operating company must still dispatch technicians to install and connect line cards and/or new wiring, to effect service restoration and/or service upgrades. Any such dispatch of a technician imposes time delays in providing the service to the network customer, as described above relative to FIGS. 6 and 7.
From the above discussion, it becomes clear that a need exists for a network architecture and/or procedures for rapid upgrades of wireline services and/or restoration of interrupted wireline services. A further need exists for such a network utilizing an advanced fiber-to-the curb type network architecture.